1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image capturing apparatus, an image processing apparatus, and an image processing method that handle image data that enables the focal length of an image to be changed after image capture.
2. Description of the Related Art
Among digital cameras, attention has been given to the field of cameras called light field cameras in recent years. With images captured by this type of camera, it is possible to create a refocused image by changing the focal length (imaging plane, refocus plane) after image capture, and thus there is expectation for the ability to select various focal positions after image capture and eliminate out-of-focus images caused by user error at the time of image capture.
Meanwhile, there is a function called index display that is used when displaying images captured by a digital camera. This is a function for displaying a list of reduced images to make it easier for the user to find an intended image. However, although images captured by a light field camera enable the focus to be placed anywhere after image capture, the focus is not necessarily placed on the person or the like that the user desires to have in focus at the time of image capture. In particular, when index display is performed, there are cases where, for example, it is not possible to determine who appears in an image if the person is not in focus, and the user has difficulty in selecting an image.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-065356 discloses a method for resolving the aforementioned problem in which a subject's face cannot be recognized at the time of image capture with a light field camera. In this method, a setting is set for changing the depth of field, the lens position is changed multiple times for preliminary image capture, face recognition is performed based on the results of the preliminary image capture, and then image capture is performed.
However, although Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-065356 discloses a method for performing face recognition at the time of image capture, there is no disclosure of a method for resolving the aforementioned problem at the time of image reproduction.
In view of the aforementioned problems, the present invention provides an image capturing apparatus, an image processing apparatus, and an image processing method that enable easy identification of a subject included in image data that was captured by a light field camera.